Learning Outside the Classroom: The Key to Managing Behaviour?

Many recent studies suggest that there has been an increase in challenging behaviour seen in the classroom, making the teacher’s job even more difficult. This seems to be down to a wide range of factors, from too much screen time to not being given enough freedom in their learning and down-time.

In my opinion, teachers alone are not able to solve this problem, however we do have a key role to play in helping to manage and improve the behaviour of these ‘challenging’ children. There are many different solutions which can be implemented, and I believe that it must be a mixture of all of these solutions which will obtain the best results in your classroom. One solution I believe to be very powerful is to allow students a good amount of time in the outdoors each day, whether this is time where they are free to explore and take risks, or by doing a directed activity or task.

Children have loads of energy, which when channelled correctly can result in excellent learning experiences, however due to this many children struggle to sit and focus in a hot classroom for extended periods. By taking the learning outside this allows those children to use their energy, pump oxygen around their body and brains and focus on their learning. This alone can significantly improve the behaviour of children in your classroom.

Not only this, but as we know children learn in many different ways and are engaged by different things. By taking learning outside the classroom it allows children to learn through their different senses and truly engage in the world around them, making the learning real and relevant which again is likely to have a positive impact on their behaviour and learning.

When I first started taking children outside, especially when there was an element of risk involved, I was nervous about how my ‘challenging’ students would react, however once outside you could not tell which students the ‘challenging’ ones were. Instead every child was focused, having fun, and enjoying learning. It’s greatly improved the behaviour of my class as well as their progress and love for learning. I now couldn’t imagine teaching without spending a large amount of time outside the classroom.

Check out our outdoor learning resources to help you facilitate outdoor learning with your class and school.